Chapter 549 - Small Mountain Village (1/2)

As they hurried towards the American coastal base, Xiao Luo observed that the SEAL team’s combat skills were excellent. They were quickly able to spot minefields, and on top of that, they had a mine detector that could accurately identify the mines’ location, allowing their vehicles to carefully navigate around the danger zones.

Dusk was falling, and soon they arrived at a small mountain village.

Smoke could be spotted around the small mountain village. When they looked over, they saw only about a dozen huts made of loess soil. There were barely any trees in the surroundings, a clear sign of desertification, likely caused the low air quality rather than other factors. The area was a dust bowl, and villagers in ragged clothes were scuttering around the village. When they saw a band of armed combatants breaking in, the villagers stared at the strangers in trepidation with their eyes wide opened and cowered in fear.

“I’m thirsty as hell! It’s actually pitiful how little water they can provide. This entire country is turning into a desert. It’s a miracle they can actually live here!” Rice said gruffly. His throat was dry, and he wiped the sweat off his forehead in desperation.

He was extremely thirsty, and his entire body was aching after a whole day of traveling. Everyone else was in pretty much teh same condition.

He turned his head and looked at Powell. “Captain, I think we should rest here for the night, but we’ve got to solve the water issue first,” he said.

“We can just ask the Libyan villagers here where we can go to get water,” Powell replied. He used his eyes to indicate that he was referring to the villagers standing at the village entrance.

Rice didn’t notice it at first, but he got a shock when he had a look. “Oh, my God, these people are severely malnourished. Look at those kids. They all look so hungry that all you can see are skin and bones. That’s just pitiful!”

“As long as there’s a war, the citizens are the ones who are going to suffer the most.”

Powell lamented and then turned to face his female team member. “Mina, since they’re the host, let’s share a bit of our food with them. After all, we’ll be able to return to the base by tomorrow, and the quantity of food we have in the car should be sufficient,” he said, “What we need the most now is water. Take some food and make friends with them. I think they’ll be happy to let us know where we can get some water and would be more than willing to let us rest here tonight.”

“Understood.”

Mina nodded her head and asked two more members for help. They took out some nutritious canned food and compressed high-energy rations.

Xiao Luo didn’t say a thing, but he did raise his eyebrows a little. Call it intuition, but this small mountain village and all of its villagers gave him a strange feeling. It was hard to describe what he was feeling, but the atmosphere here was oppressive in general. The villagers were walking about staring blankly and resembled the walking dead who had already lost their souls. Their eyes look dull and dead, and they looked like puppets that were being controlled by someone.

Sarah looked at Xiao Luo curiously, blinking her eyes. “Mr. Mie, what’s wrong?” she asked.

Xiao Luo shook his head and said, “Nothing’s wrong.”

“Mr. Mie, this is just a small mountain village. The black Libyan army isn’t here, so you don’t have to be too nervous. Besides, you don’t have to worry about a single thing, and if an accident happens, we won’t abandon you no matter what,” Rice sneered.

Xiao Luo laughed and didn’t say anything. It was better to just ignore people like this, he thought.

…

When the villagers received the food rations, the way their dull-looking eyes looked upon Xiao Luo, and the rest of the team transformed significantly.

Sarah Michelle automatically acted as the translator, and through some communication, she realized that there was a creek just roughly one kilometer east of the village. The water there could be consumed, and the villagers agreed to provide a hut for Xiao Luo and the SEAL team to stay for a night.

The hut had been damaged during a previous artillery bombardment, and there was a massive hole in the ceiling. Everyone here would undoubtedly be soaked wet by the rainwater if it rained. It was very much a courtyard surrounded by four walls but compared to all the other huts in this village, this was probably the one in the best condition.

Rice was gobbling down his canned food and looking at his surroundings. “These Libyan villagers are rather friendly, and they actually let us have the best hut in this village. When I return home, I must record the entire mission here in Libya in my log for posterity,” he said.

There was a bonfire right at the center, and the light from the fire was flickering gently and casting shadows on everyone’s faces.

“Lieutenant Rice, your writing is so bad. How will we be able to read and understand the articles that you write?” One of the members said jokingly.